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An Historic Meeting in the Vatican: World religious leaders join the call of the Chief Rabbis for the prevention of premature death by doctors performing euthanasia, as they signed an historic document along with representatives of all monotheistic religions.

An historic meeting was held on Monday, October 28, 2019 in Vatican City, including the representatives of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, along with representatives of major religious leaders. They signed the historic preliminary document calling on physicians around the world not to lend a hand in killing people, including those who are terminally ill.

In recent years, ‘mercy killings’ have become increasingly common in some countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium, Canada, and Australia, and even in some states in the United States. In some states, doctors and medical agencies encourage disconnecting terminally ill patients from life support, thereby permitting the patients to die in the absence of appropriate case, and some families are actively encouraged to terminate the lives of the terminally ill patients by injecting poison into their bodies. In exceptional cases, even healthy people allow them to choose to end their lives with the assistance of doctors.

According to Yiddishkeit, and unlike other monotheistic religions, this is a real murder, which are backed by medical officials around the world. In response to this, and under the initiative of Prof. Avraham Steinberg, an interfaith committee was established together with other religious representatives after lengthy discussions, the committee drafted a position paper on the importance of the continuity of life and the implications of the decision to take life in the hands of operating physician, patient and immediate environment.

The signed document was given to the Chief Rabbis of Israel, who join the call along with representatives of the Sunni Indonesian Islam, the world’s largest Sunni group, as well as Greek Orthodox Church leaders and other religious representatives around the world.

The signing ceremony was set for Vatican City and the Chief Rabbinate of Israeli sent a delegation including Rabbi Dr. Ratzon Arussi, Rav Eliezer Simcha Weiss, and Rabbi Prof. Avraham Steinberg. As per instructions from the Chief Rabbis, the signing event was held in a hall and not in a venue used for prayer.

Read  the full document here.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)